'Indian' Superbug may Not be All That Bad Afterall

An expert has revealed that the NDM-1 bacteria, resistant to almost all antibiotics, has been around for three years and may not be as bad as it is thought to be.

'Indian' Superbug may Not be All That Bad Afterall

"Our first isolate was on Jan. 9, 2008 ... Other isolates are from 2007," English.news.cn quoted Dr. Mark Toleman, a co-author of a paper as saying.

The paper immediately caught worldwide attention since some of the isolates are proved to be resistant to all existent antibiotics. "Isolate" is a term used by scientists that means sample.

Toleman told that their first paper about the NDM-1 bacteria was published in 2009, but that was "nearly two years after the isolate started to be investigated" because the research work and publication took time, he said.

Dr. David Livermore, director of antibiotic resistance monitoring at the British Health Protection Agency (HPA), also confirmed this by telling: "the first cases of infections with bacteria with NDM-1 enzyme in the UK and Europe occurred in 2008," and "there is evidence that this type of resistance was circulating in India in 2007."

The paper has been published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases last week.

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